


Arcadian Dreams - Foundation

by HarunaRei, Noumenon_Paradox



Series: Arcadian Dreams [1]
Category: Rockman Zero | Mega Man Zero, Rockman | Mega Man - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Beta'd, Ficlet Collection, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-22
Updated: 2020-11-19
Packaged: 2021-03-09 00:41:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 7,270
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27155383
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HarunaRei/pseuds/HarunaRei, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Noumenon_Paradox/pseuds/Noumenon_Paradox
Summary: Society is in ruins, the atmosphere is unbreathable, the surface is scorched.Building is hard. Rebuilding is harder. And pushed to the fore, as always, is the reluctant final creation of Dr. Thomas Light.It’s your move now, Xander.
Relationships: Zero (Rockman)/Original Character(s)
Series: Arcadian Dreams [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1982153
Comments: 10
Kudos: 7





	1. Thursday, 03 October 2267 [Part 1]

**Author's Note:**

> So, this… this is a _project_ , and that does not do this scope of this any degree of justice.
> 
> Now, most everyone here won’t recognize me by my current username, but some of you wandering over from fanfiction.net might recognize the _Mega Man Classic/Zero_ crossover story, **Redemption**. HarunaRei and I have set that aside for newer projects, and I even got a shiny new pen name!
> 
> Anyway, the reason I mention **Redemption** is because that’s basically the firestarter here. I like the _Zero_ series, but I also hate it because there’s so much wasted potential. In the wake of our work on **Redemption** , though not solely because of it, we took a selection of characters over to the Tumblr. She’d started with a Blues ask blog, and I opted for Omega.
> 
> Yeah, don’t look too deeply into my decision. Or do. I like the direction he developed in.
> 
> Over about two years, give or take, we added to our roster—I won’t go over who here—but it was enough for us to start a progressive slide away from Capcom canon and into a wholly AU take on the _Zero_ series. We called it Beacon City.
> 
> And then the AU spilled over into Google Drive, and this world literally took on a life of its own. By all accounts, this world is a _beast_.
> 
> After some deep soul-searching and more than a few meltdowns because, hey, look, PTSD is a demon no one deserves, I finally decided I wanted to make a solid presentation of Beacon City without the Tumblr multiverse factoring in, that I wanted to show the world of Beacon City as it exists inside my mind. It wasn’t hard to convince HarunaRei, either!
> 
> This is going to span an undetermined number of drabbles, and there’s so much going on that it’s going to be organized into _multiple_ ficlet collections. We’re going to try to stick to a progressive timeline, but it’ll be little vignettes rather than a solid narrative that flows from the end of one ‘chapter’ to the next. I guess ‘episodic series’ would be a fitting descriptor.
> 
> So buckle up and get ready to go on a ride.
> 
> We don’t have a set release schedule, but we’ve at least got a few ‘episodes’ already plotted out or written.
> 
>  **Character Notes:** X goes by Xander Light, Zero is Zachary (or Zach) Weidlich, and I’ll make sure the author’s notes address any name alterations as this goes on. Most of the changes are just cosmetic, but X and Zero, well…

* * *

The Elf Wars had certainly taken their toll.

Like survivors after the storm’s fury had finally settled, they’d tended their wounds and started taking stock, assessing the damage and looking for others who’d weathered the storm and mourning those who hadn’t. The scattered remnants of the Hunters and Federation alike had been all but crippled by the initial numbers, by the scope of devastation that ravaged their world in four short years, not sure how they’d rebuild.

The numbers just kept rising as time went on.

68 percent of the human populace lost.

72 percent of the world’s flora wiped out of existence.

83 percent of the known species of fauna lost.

87 percent of the Reploid population lost.

92 percent of the planet’s land area no longer safe for human habitation.

Perhaps it was the weight of uncertainty that had so many survivors turning to Xander Light for answers. For all he’d suffered, for all he’d seen, he alone had survived the tumult from the start of the First Maverick War.

It certainly didn’t make him unshakable or infallible, but he’d meant something to them, was something _more_ than anyone else.

The thought crossed Xander’s mind more than once whether they’d look at Zach the same way, if he’d be all but deified once he finished his stasis testing. He wondered, too, whether they realized that the 60-year cycle was as much a testing cycle as it was a self-imposed sentence for the crime of being born with the Maverick virus.

Either way, Zach was asleep, and so the world turned to him alone. He’d responded with a simple and massively profound plan: they would rebuild.

Temporary shelters erected to keep humanity safe slowly, steadily, became more permanent colonies. Reploids, by far more resilient than their biological counterparts, volunteered in droves to help where they could. Burned-out husks of once-grand cities became scavenger sites, salvage that would become a true shelter, a bastion against the whispers of ruin that threatened what faint glimmers of hope they could find.

In the dawning days of 2236, crews broke first ground in the now-dried out basin of Lake Zaysan in Kazakhstan, near the ruins of the only Orbital Elevator still remaining in the wake of the wars. The devastation of Weil and Omega’s assault was evident even here, where mountains had been leveled to craggy plains, but here too was hope. Here, too, was a dream for a future. Though the land had been ravaged, it wasn’t near any of the irradiated sites from where nuclear weaponry had been unleashed. Deep drilling in the site would provide the groundwork for planned geothermal plants. Wind turbines and solar farms would ring the nation’s barrier walls, providing a stable, safe energy source, another comfort in a sea of uncertainty.

The sheer scope of Xander’s plans, covering over six billion square kilometers, was by all accounts and estimates nothing more than an insane fever dream of a plan. And yet they pushed on.

Factories went up in designated industrial sites for the sanctuary’s 78 districts. Scrap brought from the wastelands of cities became the framework for new buildings, became the foundation of the massive barrier walls and the shielding dome.

Despite every estimate, every naysayer of the project, every whisper that it wouldn’t be _possible_ , on 23 September 2267, just over three decades after the project had started, the final panel in the Eden Dome was set into place, and construction on it was _done_.

He’d meant for the district surrounding the Zaysan Elevator to be dubbed ‘Beacon City’, given that both the remnants of the Elevator and the district tower built near it were to be the eastern beacons to this fortress nation. Instead, as word spread, the entirety of the sanctuary kept being addressed as Beacon City, no thought given to the sheer size of this ‘city’.

So the eastern district became Neo Arcadia.

It was odd to some that he’d settled for that, given that the architecture of the district was a mix of modern and traditional Japanese, when so many other districts took names in the language of the country or region on which they were based.

Others knew he’d chosen that name because of the project’s reputation as an impossible, Elysian, _Arcadian_ dream he’d never see realized. So his home district became Neo Arcadia, and the district based on the Mediterranean Isles had been given a new designation as well—Nar Elysia.

Standing on the roof deck of the newly-dubbed Neo Arcadia Tower, his hands tense on the perimeter rail, his attention was fixed out toward Gate 01, one of sixty massive multi-sectional airlocks that closed Beacon City off from the outside world. Within the gates, the ships that were inbound from the colonies would be docking, their passengers taken through decontamination before being provided new clothes, being registered as citizens of the City, and welcomed to this new life, finally safe from everything that had strained them beyond the breaking point.

He let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding when the access door to the roof slid open, and he turned and offered a wavering, nervous smile to his visitor. 

* * *


	2. 2. Thursday, 03 October 2267 [Part 2]

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Character Info:** X goes by Xander Light, Zero goes by Zachary (Zach) Weidlich.

* * *

Almost 90 years ago, the Hunters made a pin. Well, scratch that— _ Lieutenant Commander Weidlich _ made a pin. It was active capture, a game they’d agreed to, even if she’d been under a  _ bit _ of duress.

Almost 90 years ago, a well-known hacker and information broker got ahold of some alarming information around a Reploid from Red Alert that’d been picked up by the Hunters. In this case, this young Reploid had crossed a few too many people. Inadvertently, of course. In this case, the Federation was set to look  _ very _ bad if a few heads didn’t roll, and Axl’s was convenient.  _ Would have been _ convenient. 

Who’d have guessed that Red Alert, despite being an unruly mercenary gang, had managed to hit and demolish a Fed-funded think tank researching the virus? Who’d have guessed that the Federation was willing to break its own laws around safe viral research and containment? Who’d have guessed that Axl was the single, lingering witness?

Who’d have guessed that expendable Reploids were, well, expendable? To the Federation, anyway.

Leto would have guessed, and  _ did  _ guess. She’d preferred to slide under the radar, surreptitiously accessing locked databases, servers, emails,  _ anything _ . She’d do it on commission, or on her own free time to sate her own curiosity. She’d take that data and sell it. Well, usually.

There was something incredibly distasteful about illegal execution orders against adolescents. This bit of data was a powder keg, and sharing it was equivalent to lighting it. She’d be the one caught in the blast, but the child would almost certainly survive. 

Determining the right thing to do wasn’t the hard part. The hard part was her own survival instincts.

Almost 90 years ago, that infamous hacker, Leto, had forwarded that powder keg to the Hunters. Almost 90 years ago, she was the source of one of the biggest scandals in Federation history. The press had a field day, there were protests in the streets. High-ranking officials resigned ahead of the torches and pitchforks, and others were led away in handcuffs.

The entire debacle had landed her in handcuffs; even as a whistleblower, she’d accessed data illegally. She was given ten years of probation—in Hunter custody, of course.

Yeah, Lieutenant Commander Weidlich made a pin, all right. And she made one in turn. The game between them continued, even to this day. Or rather, it’d resume once his stasis concluded. 

Reploids playing a game like theirs were linked to one another,  _ bonded, _ if you wanted to add the innuendo. Maybe that was why marriage between Reploids was referred to as such. Even with him in stasis, both halves considered that bond immutable.

They’d come a long,  _ long _ way since then. The hell of the Maverick Wars, followed by the hell of the Elf Wars. Everyone was still cringing, not quite trusting this peace that’d settled. Some mornings, it felt like the calm before the storm, something electric in the atmosphere. Other mornings, she could feel herself beginning to trust that some semblance of stability was returning to them. Maybe it’d stay. Maybe it wouldn’t. But either way, she needed to believe they’d be okay.

There was a consistency to Xander, something that felt unchanging, even as the world continued to carve into him. She smiled back to him as she stepped onto the roof deck of Neo Arcadia Tower, her gaze scrutinizing him for a moment before she turned her attention beyond him, to the airlock he’d been looking at only moments before. “Have they started?”

“Not yet,” he answered, his grip on the rail relaxing at her approach. “First ship’s set to dock in just under an hour, though the crews are already good to go.” Nearly half of the Gates were staffed today, several dozen ships due to arrive, but there was something almost ceremonial about Neo Arcadia to be the first district to open their doors. Then, knowing that she’d been in the medical bay in his apartment before arriving, “How’s he doing?”

The smile on her face didn’t shift at his question, and her steps didn’t falter. Internally, she knew his question was twofold; yes, how was Zach doing, but also, how was  _ she _ doing? He’d asked with the air of someone who wasn’t doing daily checks himself, with the air of someone who didn’t know that she checked on him at least a half dozen times a day.

“The same as before,” she answered as she arrived at the rail beside him, her gaze still trained outward, to the edge of the Dome. “He’s proceeding apace.”

“That’s good,” and he knew as well as she did that there was far more depth to her answer than it seemed. With Zach in stasis, alive but locked both in the pod and inside his own mind, their bond-link was little more than an emotional echo chamber, compounding a loneliness Xander could only begin to understand. That was, in large part, why Leto was offered one of the guest rooms despite her and Zach having the two floors below his in the Tower to call their own.

Even if there wasn’t much he could do to ease the solitude inside her mind, he could at least offer her some form of companionship to help keep her stable.

He’d need her stable in the coming months. She was, after all, part of the team that would serve as a judicial check to his own power.

He had every intention of maintaining individual freedom within Beacon City, in allowing people to live out their lives without  _ constant _ governmental oversight, but it was still made clear to those in the shelter colonies and to those working on the City itself that they would be citizens of a military democracy. With the immediate exception of Neo Arcadia, each district would, in time, be self-governing, the residents of each voting their District Vicars into office after the candidates had passed a rigorous background check. With Beacon City yet in her infancy, military officials would be temporarily instated in those positions and answer back to the Arcadian High Council.

If all went as he hoped, they’d transition to having elected officials within a decade.

He wondered, given how he’d been considered, if he’d eventually be running for technical re-election to the Arcadian High Council, or if the people would view it better if he simply maintained the role.

“Technically off-topic,” he said, breaking the silence that had fallen between them, “but what do you think about having the general judiciary facility and the Neo Arcadian Vicar’s office set up somewhere other than the Tower?”

Leto’s gaze (and attention) were drawn from the edges of the Dome and back to the Tower at that. “I think it would be wise not to have everyone in a big, tall tower that’s an easy target for  _ troublemakers.” _

Xander hummed in agreement. “I should probably have Arcadia Design and Engineering set up with a couple satellite facilities, too.” The bulk of the military was housed in the district, but they weren’t set up in-house either. “Oh, on that note,” and he was a little surprised he’d forgotten until now, “Prata Robotics put in a formal request for consideration to handle the development of the units we’ll be assigning to the covert ops division. Did you want to tag along for the visit?”

“Prata…” Leto repeated slowly, doing a quick lookup of the company to refresh her memory. “Are they coming with a project plan, or are they just petitioning for consideration based on past work?”

“From what their rep told me, they had a few mock-ups to present, but the bulk of it was consideration given the work they’ve already put in with the PRIU line that’s being added to the police forces.” While they would still be a military police force, it was more on the technicality that had made the Federation police fall under the same designation. “I said they had two hours to impress me, but it won’t be until next Wednesday at 1000, so you’ve got time to decide.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here's episode two! I wanted to get this one out relatively close to the first, given that this is technically the second half of the first episode, and also introduces one of the original characters. That said, I'm probably going to keep close to an episode a week schedule, but we'll see. Hope you're enjoying so far!


	3. 3. Sunday, 20 October 2267

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Character Notes:** Just as a reminder, X goes by "Xander Light" and Zero goes by "Zachary Weidlich" in this universe.

Xander was chewing idly on the end of his tablet pen, gaze fixed on the screen as he paced in his kitchen, the coffeemaker behind him keeping an odd rhythm with him, almost every step answered with a  _ drip _ .

For once, though, this wasn’t because of nerves, even if his pace seemed a bit anxious, but because the continued motion helped him think.

Leto knew Xander was awake before she even got out of bed. He was one of the more organized, routine-oriented people she’d known (and that was saying a lot, considering who she was married to), so breaks in that routine tended to stand out to her. She liked to sleep in a little later on weekends, and while Xander wasn’t being loud, if she dialed up her audial receptors, she could hear the pacing.

She was sorely tempted to just turn over in bed and ignore him for another half hour or so. If it was something urgent, she knew he’d have come into her room to wake her.

But now she was  _ curious. _ With a sigh and a stretch, she relented and got out of bed, tying her robe as she moved toward the kitchen. She frowned at what she saw. It was 8:12 in the morning, Xander was up and pacing, and he wasn’t cooking. 

“You know it’s Sunday morning, right?”

He’d noticed, somewhere in his periphery, that his proximity scans were telling him she was heading toward the kitchen, but his head still snapped up at her question, and he blinked a few times before asking, “I didn’t wake you, did I?”

“‘Wake’ is a strong word,” she allowed, glancing at the coffee pot and verifying that it was still brewing. And despite having just gotten out of bed and still dressed for that occasion, she still looked sharp and alert. “What’s so important that you’re working Sunday morning, hmm,  _ Fearless Leader?” _

He waved his tablet toward her, though it was less for her to see it and more just to help him put what he was doing to words. “Trying to figure out which three companies I’m dropping for consideration as far as…” and he stopped, realizing he’d skipped a detail. “Remember how I mentioned wanting to get new single-unit build contracts in the works for the Council?”

It’d been something mentioned in passing, to be fair, but he had discussed wanting more than just her and Zach helping manage the City. This was the first he was really doing anything more than casually discussing the idea, though.

Leto blinked, now wondering if she was awake enough for this. “You have bids?”

“No,” and Xander shook his head, setting the tablet down as he moved to grab their coffee mugs. “I’ve already removed Prata from the running since they’re handling practically the entire Zan’ei,” and that was the first he’d talked about the covert operations division by name, “but with me, you, and Zach set to serve as the senior Council members, I realized I’d need an even number of units to fill out the ranks, since an odd number of  _ total  _ members would generally mean we avoid ties during case decisions.”

Taking a moment to pour both their cups, adding a splash of milk and sugar to his and leaving hers black, he motioned toward the island so they’d be able to sit and talk. After settling into his seat and taking a slow sip of his coffee, he continued. “Eight units sounded like a good number. Enough to get a variety of experiential sets, but not so many as to bog down deliberations. With eleven remaining companies to choose from, I needed to figure out which three were getting cut before I approached the rest.”

“Why not let all eleven present bids and choose from there?” She asked, shifting as she settled into her own seat, the coffee mug not really leaving her mouth except to speak.

_ Something _ about that idea actually surprised the android, and he sputtered a bit into his coffee. He’d avoided spilling any, thankfully, but he still took a minute to make sure he wasn’t going to choke on his drink again. “I should have woken you. That is  _ brilliant _ .” It took so much work off his plate and would allow the companies to really put their best foot forward.

And if the three bids that weren’t accepted were still viable, it’d be a good way to fill out the ranks of the other three divisions of the City military.

Leto grinned, her face still partially hidden behind her mug. “You didn’t send your request out yet, did you?” There was so much work to be done in Beacon City, and so quickly, that it didn’t surprise her that Xander hadn’t thought of it. His attention (and hers) were split in fifty different directions daily, only to repeat it again the next day, and the day after. It’d be easier once things calmed down some. Once there were more people here to spread the work around to.

“No,” and he got to his feet to go retrieve his tablet, returning and setting the device down. “Like I said, I was trying to figure out which three to skip over, but this angle… Leto, I swear, I could  _ kiss _ you. This takes so much off me for the time being,” and the words had only a moment to hang in the air between them before he turned a  _ very _ healthy shade of red. “I mean, you know, like on the cheek.”

The way her grin widened only cemented the idea that Xander had just fallen into  _ some _ sort of game, and she set her coffee mug down on the counter. “You know, if you did, the apology gift might just pay for that new console array I’ve been eyeing…” She trailed off, purposely heavy-lidded. “You sure you want to rethink that?”

“I can  _ buy _ you the array for that,” Xander said, a note of unease in his voice. “The last thing I want is Zach waking up, finding out I kissed you  _ once _ , and rearranging my face for the trouble.”

Then, as if to make it clear he didn’t mean anything untoward in what he’d said, he leaned over and gave her a quick peck on the cheek.

She laughed then, loudly, even as he kissed her cheek. “I suppose,” she began, struggling to keep her voice even, “You’re not  _ that _ much in need of a face rearrangement.” She was not successful at keeping her voice even. She didn’t even trust taking a sip of the coffee.

It took her a few minutes to trust speaking again. “I’ll take you up on that array, though.”


	4. Thursday, 09 January 2268

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a reminder: X is Xander Light, Zero is Zachary "Zach" Weidlich.

The nanoscale mesh had just finished stitching itself shut as Xander stepped out onto the balcony, the cold air of the winter morning jarring and brisk, serving to shake off the last vestiges of sleep. Leto was already out here, bundled in a warm coat, her hands covered by a pair of fluffy mittens, holding a swiftly-cooling cup of coffee.

“I’d ask your opinion about how I look, but I think you’re admiring the sunrise on everything that’s all covered in frost.” Among several things they’d done in building Beacon City, localized weather manipulation systems kept the districts feeling like their ‘native’ regions would have, given the time of year.

Xander hoped that the mimicry of that natural rhythm helped humanity relearn the change of seasons, considering how it was consistently desert and  _ hot _ beyond the safety of the Eden Dome.

And Xander was right; she  _ was _ admiring the sunrise. The view was always spectacular this high in the Tower, and there was a specific kind of still quiet that fell over the district on cold, frozen winter mornings. Despite their altitude, the alcove of the balcony afforded them protection from the bulk of the winds that might whip up, and so her hood, lined with faux fur, was left down.

Her proximity sensors alerted her to him before he spoke, but she didn’t glance back until she registered what he’d said. And then she turned to face him more fully, looking him over. 

The two of them had been acting as the Arcadian High Council for months now, but only now were minor details like form and proper regalia becoming points of concern. There hadn’t been time for any of that pomp before the Dome was completed, and even now, their work continued at a breakneck pace. 

Xander, as leader of Beacon City, was the first to have his robes designed and created, and she had to admit, they’d done an  _ excellent _ job of making him look both authoritative and approachable. The dual shades of blue they’d gone with mirrored his famous armor, along with the red accent color. There was a second accent, however, that caught Leto by surprise.

“I think it looks great on you,” and that was said honestly, “but I’m surprised— _ gold _ trim?”

“It’s warm, too, but I think they used a thicker material, given the current weather cycle,” and Xander held his arms out as he turned to show off the whole outfit. “As far as the gold trim, the girl they sent to deliver it said the tailor made an  _ executive _ decision to add it. Apparently, they felt it added a touch of authority beyond the whole ‘judge ro—” and Xander stopped mid-sentence. “ _ That’s _ it! Judges! Here I am trying to figure out if the eight are going to be some variant of Counselor like you and Zach and just… What is  _ up _ with my processor lately?”

Was he really that overworked?

Leto was mid-sip on her coffee when Xander cut himself off the second time, and she lingered on it as she tried to order her own mind. She moved away from the railing and toward him, not dropping eye contact. “We’ve been going nonstop for mon—for  _ years, _ Xander. If it wasn’t the Wars, it was reclamation, it was salvage, it was site planning and building, and that’s become…” She trailed off, then exhaled softly, a smile threatening her lips. “You sound like a kid on Christmas morning.”

“I’m a couple weeks late,” he said, a delighted smile still brightening his features, “but you’re not entirely wrong. I’ve been stuck on this for so long, and it just kept building on the stress because we’re close to the bids being announced.” A soft chuckle slipped from him. “And now I’m completely off-topic because I started this whole thing wanting to show off the new getup.”

“I think you need to take an  _ actual _ weekend,” she said with a shake of her head. “Really, though, I do think it looks good. Is it comfortable to move around in? Not too heavy for indoor sessions?”

“I think I need to take an actual  _ month _ , but do either of us really have the time?” They would, eventually, but right now, it was still out of the question. “But no, it’s surprisingly light despite how warm it is. Bonus points that the sleeves are long enough that I can either pull my arms up into them if it gets colder or do this,” and he folded his arms over his chest, the edges of the sleeves tucking smoothly into each other.

He was still looking entirely  _ elated _ with the situation, and Leto snorted into her coffee. “Yeah, you  _ definitely _ need a month.” Even though there was no time for it right now. “What say you to making a few rounds with your new look, see what the staff think of it?”

“That’s an idea,” and Xander shifted a bit in place, his arms moving back down to his sides, and even if he didn’t make an overt motion, it was clear as day to Leto that the way his right hand had moved, he was almost reflexively checking access to his saber. “I should probably hit the sim deck, too. Even if the likelihood is beyond low that I’ll have to engage in these, better safe than sorry.”

He only barely kept from asking her to join him for a spar. Her sparring with him  _ never _ ended well.

“I’ll probably have to do the same when mine are done,” she frowned. She honestly had no idea when that would be. It was definitely a problem for future Leto. “Sometimes it’s nice to walk and talk, though. And I think I’m cold.” More than a little, in all honesty.


	5. Tuesday, 04 February 2268

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's something to be said for chapters not going the way you envision. Don't get me wrong - it's not a bad thing. You're still going to address important plot points and character details, it may just take a few tries to finally feature a particular plot point in your story. In this case, I'd wanted this one plot point to come up in chapter three. It's a bit of a touchy topic that Xander's been avoiding and requires a somber tone and setting, which we'd not quite gotten in that chapter. So I told Haruna we'd try again in chapter four so that we weren't brute forcing anything. Chapter four comes along and that one ends up far too playful, so we push it back again. By then, I'm starting to think that it's on me for getting it "wrong", so I ask Haruna to open chapter five, figuring she'll have a better time getting us in the tonal 'zone'. Third time's the charm, right? Well, yes and no. We have a great tone and an exploration of Leto's character at this point in their timeline, but again, a bit of an overcompensation in the other direction. In happier news, we did get it right in the next chapter (so you'll see it next week!), so if you're a writer and you're finding that you're not getting something the way you want on the first try, don't lose heart. It may just take a little more time to get that one idea out, but it'll happen.
> 
>  **Character Note:** X goes by Xander Light, Zero goes by Zachary 'Zach' Weidlich.

Leto hadn’t been able to sleep. She’d laid in bed, silent, for several hours (it felt much longer) before relenting and getting up. Part of her knew this was something that’d pass, if only she’d be able to sleep. Part of her knew that even leaving the room risked waking Xander, even though his room was more or less on the opposite side of the apartment. Did she want the attention? Not really. Did she need it, though?

Most probably.

One thing she’d learned about living with war vets was that even the tiniest environmental changes triggered their scanning and tracking programs, and for a unit that was asleep, that often meant that their full boot was initiated over the smallest disturbances. It was honestly easier to keep Xander asleep than Zach, but that might be more due to her sleeping in a different room. He wouldn’t feel her mattress shift when she got up, and he wouldn’t hear the floors in the room as she moved.

She pulled on her robe and, treading lightly, she stepped out of her room. She glanced toward the other end of the apartment for a moment, then turned to consider the living area. Short of her knocking out on one of the couches within minutes of sitting down, he’d hear her within ten minutes.

The balcony, if he didn’t hear the door, would mask her presence. It was a frigid February night. Morning. It wouldn’t do, either.

The kitchen would be noisier than the living room unless she wanted to sit silently at the breakfast bar with nothing but her thoughts for the next five hours. No.

There was, of course, one other unit sleeping here tonight, and he wouldn’t hear her no matter what she did, short of physically disconnecting him from the stasis system. She took a breath and held it, listening.

Silence.

This was the opposite of what she needed in her current mental state, but she still turned and, silently as a cat, headed to the lab. Past the main maintenance area Xander kept, and into one of the side rooms. It wasn’t much larger than the standard examination room in a doctor’s office, and it looked a lot like one. In place of the cot, however, there was a single, sealed pod. The console hummed, constantly monitoring, and the data on display, while changing from minute-to-minute, was consistent enough that she knew at a glance that all was well.

She placed a hand over the sealed door of the pod, and she realized it was shaking. She was trembling. 

She knew it wasn’t from the cold.

It was less than ten seconds after she’d entered the medical ‘wing’ of Xander’s apartment that his security scans registered a presence in the rooms, and it was about thirty seconds later that his eyes fluttered open. A frown formed at the darkness, a mental command dropping the far wall’s opacity to allow at least some moonlight into the bedroom at the same time that he was checking his chronometer.

0012, on the…

Oh.

Once he’d seen the date, Xander had pushed himself out of bed, needing barely a thought to grab his saber and the belt it hung from, and his motions were almost robotic as he set the weapon at his hip, not bothering to grab a shirt for the time being.

He hadn’t even realized he’d armed himself until he was halfway to the room the pod (and Leto) were in.

Making a point of knocking on the wall as he passed the maintenance bay, just so that she knew he was there before he actually reached the room, he linked into the controls for the room’s lights and brought them up to just above ten percent. It was only just before he cleared the doorway that he finally registered the way her breath was hitching, the unit trying desperately from breaking down into a full cry.

At least she could spend the day in the room with Zach when  _ his _ birthday rolled around. He wondered if she’d even realized what day it was when she headed for the lab.

Today would have been Cora Weidlich’s—more publicly known as Mother Elf— 45th birthday. It should have been a day of celebration, except the Vaccine Elf was still lost to them even all these years after the Wars concluded.

He knew that she needed comfort, that she needed someone  _ there _ to help keep her stable, but he also knew it had been so long since she’d had a day to herself, time to let all of it just catch up with her. It was cathartic to cry, even if it didn’t really  _ fix _ anything in the moment. So, “Coffee or tea?”

She’d been hoping she’d have a little more time before Xander came calling. They hadn’t been roommates for all that long, and she knew she’d miscalculated when he rapped on the wall. 

She was always a little uncomfortable with sharing her emotional turmoil. It felt like placing an extra burden on the people around her, even if logically, she knew they wanted to help because they  _ cared. _

Nothing in the immediate sense had upset her. There was no one for Xander to send from the room, no foe to vanquish other than the darkness in her own mind. He couldn’t fight that. In a lot of ways,  _ she _ couldn’t fight it.

So when he asked her about coffee or tea, she finally broke down sobbing over the pod, her exhaustion and her grief finally overloading her ability to keep control of herself.

_ Tea _ , Xander noted to himself, pulling a second chair over to the pod as he settled next to Leto, soft tugs against her beckoning her away from the pod and toward him. As much as she needed to get this out, as much as she needed to vent like this, he figured crying onto  _ him _ would provide more comfort in the long run.

Once she calmed a bit, he’d go make tea.

The stubbornness drained out of her whenever she became this upset, so it wasn’t difficult for Xander to shift her into his arms, still openly sobbing. The past few months had been especially hectic, projects beginning and ending at a breakneck pace, and it’d been a useful distraction from her own emotional turmoil. It was easier to pretend everything was normal when there was something to do to fill every idle second, if you wanted to.

Reploids weren’t built to maintain that, however, and as the years wore on, her half of the link empty and echoing with unanswered calls, she’d begun to feel more and more hollowed out, more and more detached from reality, even if she did  _ try _ to be mentally present for the people around her.


	6. Saturday, 28 March 2268

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Character Note:** X goes by Xander Light, Zero goes by Zachary 'Zach' Weidlich.

The lock released with a soft beep, and Xander reached in to pull out one of the canisters, ignoring the red-bordered alert that cropped up in his peripheral as he checked the seal on the container and the small digital display on the side. Nodding to himself, he shut the small door to the containment unit, and turned to leave the maintenance room.

A quarter-meter in height and only as big around as a typical coffee mug, the canister held enough nanites to see Zach through another two weeks of testing.

Another proximity alert prompted, and Xander took a moment to finally code an exception rule for the Virus scanning program. Yes, the nanites he was carrying  _ were _ infected, but only on a technicality—once they’d figured out the cure for the Maverick Virus, they’d developed a variant that was specific to Zach’s systems, one that would immediately render the nanites inert should they be injected into any other unit.

The Virus had never been a weakness for the blond, didn’t make him sick, but rather served as a power source and the closest a unit would ever get to ‘performance enhancers’. It had still taken a couple instances of him having absorbed far too many Viral nanites in the field before he’d been able to rein in how violent he was while ‘dosed’, though.

So when he’d decided to go back into stasis, running Xander’s original tests to  _ ensure _ he’d never pose the threat he’d been meant to, he suggested they put him through 60 years while  _ consistently _ flooding his systems with the Virus.

Leto had initially voted  _ against _ putting Zach into 60 years of virus-hazed stasis. It’d seemed like an easy ‘no’. Sixty years of ethical testing? When his time active eclipsed that? Sixty years of ethical testing while totally viral, when there was a cure bobbing around the nursery?

It’d felt like an easy ‘no’. She’d been soundly overruled. The debate between her and Zach went well beyond when Zach and Xander considered the decision final, and she still wasn’t entirely happy with everything. 

She was also biased, and in a way she’d openly acknowledge. Sometimes, though, biases needed to be weighed. 

Regardless, here they were: decades later, Xander preparing to give Zach his latest dose and Zach quiet in his pod, his systems still giving the go-ahead. She didn’t know the scope of the testing, didn’t know what kind of decisions he’d be faced with or how much of a stress test it’d be. Compared to the hell they’d been living in, though, it’s entirely possible that reality surpassed Dr. Light’s darkest predictions, and whatever Zach was going through was in no way equivalent to living in the real world during these times.

That was honestly a cold comfort.

She watched Xander come back into the room with Zach’s pod, carrying the canister of nanites. She had to admit, the Virus was still  _ incredibly _ unsettling, even in a form that was formulated to be compatible with no one but Zach.

Shifting the canister into his right hand, Xander stopped next to Leto and gave her shoulder a comforting squeeze. As much as he knew she  _ still _ disagreed with this stasis period, as much as he acknowledged that she wanted it over and done with, he’d also understood Zach’s logic in wanting to subject himself to the ethical testing cycle Xander himself had undergone. Zach had, to some degree, learned to control himself while dosed and could remain cognizant of what he was doing, but he’d still needed to be somewhat directed while in that state.

In many ways, Xander and Leto had been more his handlers than his friends during those times.

So to train himself to be  _ aware _ , to be able to think through the haze of every system running in overdrive? He was already a force to be reckoned with when exposed to the Virus. Like this, should it ever be needed to defend the City, to protect what was left of the world? He’d be unstoppable.

Moving over to the head of the pod, Xander slid a panel aside, turning the older canister enough to check its display, and nodded at the reading that the last of the nanites had been discharged into Zach’s system only five minutes prior. Pulling that free and setting it down on the floor, he took only a few seconds to align the new canister and get it locked into place.

It was strange every time he’d needed to load one of these, always the slightest bit on edge given how the filled canisters gave off a warm, yellow glow. The Virus, originally, had manifested with a sick, purplish hue that seemed to tint everything around it. This wasn’t as bright, didn’t seem to flood an area, and even if it felt more like looking at candlelight than the miasma from before, it didn’t  _ feel _ right.

Replacing the canister always served as a reminder to Xander of something he’d been wanting to ask Leto, but the longer things went, the less it felt like the ‘right time’ to broach the topic. Now, though, with the Judges actively in development and  _ other  _ plans on the drawing board, he was running out of time to talk with her.

“Leto, I…” and he stopped, sliding the cover back into place over the canister.

He knew he needed to ask. He had copies of the code he needed to use, but to do so without Leto at least giving the go-ahead? He couldn’t do that to someone he saw as his sister.

Xander wasn’t someone who often trailed off or was lost for words, and her gaze moved from what he was doing at the pod to Xander himself, frowning when she realized he suddenly looked lost at sea. “What’s wrong?”

He looked up to her, took in her worried countenance, and shook his head. “Not wrong, really. It’s just something I’ve been fighting with myself on how to ask.” He wanted to just avoid this now, find some way to redirect her attention, but he’d already opened his mouth. “Habicht and Queensland sent messages asking about the system defense and security programming that I wanted set up for the Judges, and it just kind of brought this back to the fore. Given the role the Judges will have in the City, and some work I’ll likely be starting in the next few years, I wanted to know if you’d be okay with me using Cora’s data as the base framework for a stronger program.”

The current version of the program being used on Reploids still provided resistance, if not outright immunity, to most mental and system attacks, but he knew that the Judges would need more, just to be safe. He knew the units he was planning on his own, too, would have to be more than just safe.

Leto could be hard to read.  _ Was _ hard to read for most people. She was a master of deflection, and of keeping her own thoughts and feelings as private as she needed them to be. Xander, however, had known her for nearly a century and so knew that her countenance shifting from worried to neutral wasn’t necessarily a good thing. She did that by default when she didn’t want people to know what she was thinking.

The long span of silence that followed also was not necessarily a good sign.

She knew, somewhere in the static of her mind, that what Xander was asking was not only reasonable, but also  _ completely sensible. _ Of course Cora’s data might be useful in building new units who were made to be  _ incredibly _ immune.

She worked her jaw for a moment before asking, her voice the kind of even that was entirely forced. “What kind of program?”

“Just their system defenses,” Xander assured. “The typical setup: security system maintenance, attack response protocols, mental protections and access firewalls. We need to make sure that  _ nothing _ can get through, and something adaptive, something that works to respond to new data sets and variant attack forms would be the best course of action.” He looked away then, not necessarily ashamed but uneasy at the admission. “It’d be especially important to me, not just because of how close the Judges will be to us, but also because of the…the units I’m planning.”

Cora’s data was more advanced than “standard” Reploid defensive systems, and it didn’t sound like Xander was intending to include the portion that allowed Cora to mutate to respond to new viral strains, so the units with the data wouldn’t be susceptible to corruption the way she was. Leto’s hand was over her mouth, an overt tell as she absorbed what Xander was telling her...and what he wasn’t telling her.

She felt raw with something almost like nausea roiling in her, and she took a steadying breath. To say that the loss of the Mother Elf was a raw spot for her would be a severe understatement of truth. Even though the blame wasn’t solely with her, Leto still carried a deep, agonizing guilt with her, even all these years later. That was  _ her _ daughter. Zach had gone into stasis, and it’d been left to  _ her _ to protect their new, small family. It’d been  _ hers. _

That Xander was asking this wasn’t what upset her—it made sense.  _ It made sense. _ But everything around Cora rent through Leto and left her quaking. She couldn’t blame Xander for that. Didn’t.

Her own emotional turmoil was why it took a half minute or so for Xander’s final admission to catch up with her, and she took a steadying breath before asking, “You have kids on the board?”

He didn’t answer immediately, instead moving over to where she was sitting and leaning some into her back, his arms wrapping over her shoulders. He knew this was a sensitive topic, that even an indirect mention of her daughter was enough to send her thoughts down darker paths some days, and he gave her a loose but reassuring hug. “You don’t have to help with the programming if you’re not comfortable,” he said, “but I wanted the blessing of at least one of her parents before I used her data. I didn’t want to jump the gun and then have you and Zach angry at me down the line for keeping a secret of it.”

He straightened up a moment later, giving her shoulders another comforting squeeze. “And yeah, to answer your question. I don’t have anything solid yet, but I knew I’d be asking for them too.”

Was it rude of him to plan out the build of his own kids when hers was still out there, somewhere, lost and still warped by what Stefan Weil had done to her?

Leto took another breath, leaning some into Xander’s touch before reaching up and taking one of his hands in hers. Her voice was still soft, still strained, but he could hear the smile in her voice as she replied, “I’d be happy to help you, Xander.”

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome to Beacon City!


End file.
